2014

November 2014

August 2014

July 2014

First, Yancey provided a demo of ArtistX. It is an Ubuntu-based bootable DVD containing many free multimedia software packages for audio, 2D and 3D graphics, and video production.

Later, Mike Major showed a MK808 device. It is an "Android TV Stick". The main electrical specs are:

Rockchip RK3066 Dual Core Cortex A9 Processor

Quad Core Mali 400 Open GL GPU

1GB DDR3 RAM

8GB NAND Flash Internal Storage

802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (USB 3G Dongle support not included)

2.4Ghz wireless remote keyboard and mouse supported

Here is a FAQ for MK808b, which may be a good start for the uninitiated.

Wireless is pretty bad on these units (mainly due to poor manufacturing quality). If you are in the same room as the AP, it might work. However, speeds will be slow. There are several purported fixes for this which include do a soldering gun. I was not successful due to the extremely small wire gage. I chose to go with USB Ethernet instead and disable wireless in "Settings". There are 1 or 2 USB Ethernet adapters for which Android has kernel modules included. Use one with the ASIX AX88772 chipset. Pluggable.com sells the USB2-E100 model that works.

Freaktab is the place to get a rooted ROM. The section "Android TV Player Support" is what you want. There are several versions of Android available.

I don't recommend the Complete Linux Installer. I tried it about 1 year ago. It took a lot of work (hacking) to get Arch to run. I didn't know any better at the time so I thought that was "State of the Art". I tried Linux Deploy after fighting too much with the previous one. I really recommend Linux Deploy. It is highly polished; has good options; provides step-by-step install; supports startup scripts and partition mounting. Overall I think it is very good. Root access is needed.

I use Samba Server from Ice Cold Apps. I think it works well. On a rooted device there is no need for port forwarding. It can be set to auto-start on boot.

Some people are loading XBMC on the device.

/data is not mounted at boot time when the custom init.d scripts are run. If you are making an init.d script to mount something there at startup, it won't work.

There is no systemd support on Android. If you want a linux distro that uses systemd for init, you will have to maintain your own service start-up scripts.

rsnapshot is a good light duty remote backup solution. It is based on rsync. Use SSH key-based authentication for unattended backups.

USB hard drives work just fine. Partitions formatted with FAT32 will be auto mounted by Android (just like a USB flash drive). ext2/3/4 partitions are supported for read/write but they will not be auto mounted. Drives/partitions will show up as /dev/block/sd[x] (as opposed to /dev/sd[x]).

USB hubs work fine. A powered hub might be recommended depending on the devices attached and the associated current draw. A hub with a wifi catcher for a wireless keyboard/mouse, a powered external hard drive and a ethernet adapter works fine unpowered in my use case.

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

Erad treated us to pizza and drinks, and mentioned they were actively seeking new hires with Linux experience. Jeremy Sands gave a brief talk about long range wifi using a wireless adapter capable of 1000 mW power and a 16 dB gain Yagi antenna.

If you happen to find yourself in, say, Belize, the command to up the transmit power and unlock extra wifi channels on the adapter is: iw reg set BZ

February 2011

Our speaker was Kendall Weaver, a software developer with Peppermint and will be speaking about the Peppermint Linux distribution and Ice. Additionally, Tom Ashley give us an update on our very own Carolina Free PC project.

January 2011

The meeting was cancelled due to snow.

2010

December 2010

Jared Sutton gave a demonstration of 5 great applications that we shouldn't live without. Eric Erkens will be demonstrating how awesome GNOME 3 is.

November 2010

October 2010

Shay Walters from the Columbia LUG discussed hacking the Seagate Dockstar to load Debian Linux on it. The write-up is available here. Also the ODP presentation on attaching the serial cable to the Dockstar is available here.

Joey Linden, also from the Columbia LUG, discussed using sshfs to access files on a remote system where you have ssh access. Examples were given accessing the Dockstar as well as a FreeNAS server.

September 2010

Android development was the topic de jour. A representative from Verizon discussed the cell phone provider's perspective of Android. Additionally, Rick Smith talked about developing Android applications using the Ruby-based Rhomobile development suite.

July 2007

June 2007

Dr. Tom Holt of the University of North Carolina Charlotte will be joining us to talk about some of the happenings and culture in the underworld of the internet and specifically within white collar crimes.<br.>